ICEBlock Removed From the App Store

Carefully sidestepping the issue of whether this app is legal/ethical/whatever, I still have to wonder why it's not just a website.

So many things that just do one thing should just be a website for so many reasons. Did the creator of this not want a website, did it not occur to them, I just wonder why.

@bart Usually the answer to your question is "because it was an iOS developer who did it, and they might not know how to code a webpage". The bigger question is, why can't people freely download and install this app on a device they own from a website? A device they quote unquote "own".

Considering how comfortable Tim Cook is with sucking up to Trump, I wonder what other apps the administration will pressure Apple to kill?

When Apple announced that the App Store would be the only way to install apps on your phone, I thought that was a bad idea. It's been almost two decades since then and I've only become more certain I was right.

Here’s an interesting article about the app from before it was banned.
https://www.metafilter.com/210189/Unfortunately-the-ICEBlock-app-is-activism-theater

@bart, @Leo...

iOS developer here, one with *just* enough web programming experience to be dangerous. Maybe I'm answering my own question, but maybe either of you can help me understand...

Isn't there at least *some* advantages (location tracking, cellular availability) that may come from something that isn't this web app? I'm also trying to sidestep politics, both governmental and corporate. This "website" you both are referring to.... who pays for maintenance or upkeep? Why should I trust *it*?

Please, let's be constructive. I think I - despite being an iOS developer - am actually on the same side as you both. But speaking technically, how would this "website' work?

Who pays for your iOS server storage? I'm not sure Apple has enough free oer-app iCloud storage to build something like this app. So you still pay for some cloud storage. At which point, if you have storage and some basic knowledge, hosting the HTML becomes trivial. You can request location with modern web browsers. You can use mapping solutions to display a map on the web. I dont see s technical barrier here to gatekeep as an app.

But still, it should be possible to just install the app from anywhere.

Interesting cognitive dissonance to see the same people upset this was pulled previously telling anyone that supported the EU sideloading being brought to the States "if you don't like it, leave the platform." Irony at its finest.

@Leo, good point. As I said, I know just enough HTML (is it still HTML5? CSS? I can read JavaScript) to be dangerous. :-) That last sentence seems a bit biased against App Store and wanting side-loading. Not that I'm disagreeing with you, just noting it.

Thank you for the thoughtful reply.

@Dave & @Léo

Good points. Strange of me to just assume the same person would have an equal skillset in web development.

I checked out the website a bit and it does seem that the answer is that the person chose iOS due to perceived privacy improvements, especially push notifications.

I suppose I assumed someone with the capability to create this iOS app, and who apparently could but has chosen not to also make it on Android, could also have found a way to implement it for the web.

Push notifications seems to be the major issue, and I don't know how those work for web pages but I'm assuming it has the same problem as Android of them having to store a UUID. But as Léo pointed out, someone has to store it.

I suppose they chose to take the risk of trusting Apple to keep the data safe while also taking the risk that their single point of distribution could go away.

So I suppose the other answer to my question is that the alternative starts to go down the hosting whack-a-mole rabbit hole. I suppose it's better for the dev to have Apple simply take the app down than have the feds kick in the door and start seizing servers.

Website hosting can also be shut down and then the data itself is more at risk, so I understand why they did this particular thing this way.

In the end an app store is just another hosted service.

@bart, great reply.

Speaking personally, my experience starts with Assembler, Apple II, and goes through COBOL 74, Visual Basic, C#, and ABAP. Never liked Obj-C and still work in Swift. And again, just enough web coding to be dangerous.

I get your point about push notifications. No clue how to do it on an iOS device through the web, but maybe that's why this was an iOS app Apple shut down. For me, HTML/CSS/JavaScript, like Swift, is a language. Push notifications, web sites, even web apps, are not. And yes, some are open while some are not. I appreciate you (and @Leo) teaching me something about the state of native(?) web programming.

Now if @Leo can teach me one more thing - that tilde (accent?) - over your "e".... how can I properly do that? (Writing on an m2 MBP.)

The Trump Regime could have pressured Apple to remove this app. That alone shows why sideloading is so important. Apple should not have the ability to censor applications like this. Users should have the right to install apps like this.

Even if the president doesn’t want them to